Ramblings

I never realized that Jorge R. Gutierrez (“Director of The Book of Life and creator (with muse Sandra Equihua) of Nickelodeon’s El Tigre, The Adventures of Manny Rivera.” | http://www.super-macho.com/) had a mural here in Dallas (@ Long Building, 2801 Elm St., Dallas, TX 75226 – Technically, behind in “July Alley“). He posted about it today on his Twitter & Instagram accounts, referencing 42Murals.com IG: @43Murals

I have had the opportunity to travel all over China. In particular, I have been to rural & impoverished areas similar as shown in the video below. So many memories were brought back by this 30 minute documentary.

Depopulation of rural areas has become a serious issue in China, where economic growth has led the vast majority of youth to migrate to urban eras. Homes and fields that had supported families for generations are now falling into disrepair, with only a handful of villagers left to maintain them. Although the younger generation shows no signs of returning, outside groups are instead finding creative uses for the rustic area: Artists have recently established studios in the village, inspired by the rich history and nature that abound there. In this episode, we explore the current state of China’s rural farming villages, and the movements that are bringing new life to them.

Available until January 26, 2017

What I found encouraging in this video is how art is being used to facilitate bringing restoration & hope, relationship & community, and life & vitality back into these crumbling villages and increasingly isolated lives. Artists have come to create & display art as they live there, restore buildings, and enter into community with the locals

This reminds me a little bit of what The Stewpot here in Dallas does, in part, with the homeless in the arts.

Both express a significant aspect of my heart and the hope I have for my creative endeavors in bringing restoration to people through art. They make me consider how we creatives can use our art to facilitate bringing life & vitality back to crumbling/depraved areas & lives.

The video is worth a watch, but is only available for the next couple of weeks.

…In this post, you and I will go through the steps of a submission, from researching agencies to signing on the dotted line—while having a bit of a heart-to-heart along the way.

I also ask six well-respected agents to share their thoughts by answering three questions.

By the end of this post, you may finally have the answer to: “Do I need an agent?” …

Giuseppe Castellano is an award-winning Designer, Illustrator, and Executive Art Director at Penguin Random House; with over seventeen years of book publishing experience. He oversees the imprints of Grosset & Dunlap, Mad Libs, Frederick Warne and Co., the Penguin Young Readers, Penguin Young Readers Licenses, and Cartoon Network Books.

Zac Retz does wonderful work and just Tweeted that he has added 5 videos with voiceover as well as a brush to his Gumroad for download. Just $5 too! What a deal! [Note: The downloaded zip gives links to private Youtube videos, not actual videos to download]

This webinar will cover the basics of copyrights that cartoonists and graphic novelists need to know: copyright basics, where to register, why to register. Attendees will walk away with a basic understanding of: 1) Types of contracts and contract terms cartoonists will encounter (such as “work-for-hire”) 2) Copyright issues with collaborative work (who owns what) 3) And the basics of fair use and fan art.

Members join for free – as a benefit of membership.

Non-Members – Join the live webinar for $45 by following the “Buy Now” button.

Introduce your work to the world. Enter the most prestigious competition for creativity in illustration, the Communication Arts Illustration Competition. Any illustration first published or produced from January 2016 through January 2017 is eligible.

These categories are judged by the Illustration jury and will appear in the Illustration Annual: Advertising, Books, Editorial, For Sale, Institutional, Motion/Animation, Self-Promotion, Unpublished, Student Work

This post has additional information & links at the bottom (Article Also Posted Here)

This year has been a pretty big year for me. It actually started slightly before 2016.

In October 2015, I had come to the long-wrestled with conclusion that rather than all of the things I had been doing these many years, my heart was really for illustration and particularly children’s oriented illustration. Additionally, I had a deep-rooted desire to contribute to the minds, hearts, & wellbeing of children; thus, leading to the pursuit of children’s book development.

This meant I would need to be spending a lot of time trying to get back up to speed in illustration as well as children’s book development while simultaneously pushing away anything that didn’t fit into this focus.

So, when I got back from Taiwan (Oct 2015) I joined SCBWI.org (Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators) and jumped right into creating and drinking from a waterfall of information & such.

• Getting back online into social media & connecting with industry people/organizations and populating with content (I had used social media a TON personally but then pulled all of my content & activity back in 2009)
• Actively engaging with others online (like in the SVS Forum, Facebook Groups, other social media)
• Meeting with other illustrators in person

Exploration:

• Created a variety of paintings & attempted new things with each (whether process, style, content, etc.)
• Sketched a lot, also attempting new things with each
• Moving from exclusively digital back into including traditional media

I suppose there are more points that could be added here, but even with the points listed it is quite a bit that has been done, yet, this hardly expresses just how many sub-points and specifics each entails, which is an enormous amount! Truly this past year has been drinking from a waterfall.

I think that I have successfully reoriented my focus; something I am quite excited about.

Because of that, I think that I have made substantial progress on redeveloping myself and giving myself a pretty good initial foundation.

From this, I see 2017 as being a continuation of the education, expansion, & exploration of 2016 but with heightened focus, benefiting from all of the work done already.

Now that I have something to show, I can begin “stepping-up my game” with the quality of my drawing, painting, concept & narrative, etc. of my work, including developing specific types of work absent from but necessary for my portfolio. (No pressure, right?)

I’m still looking for my “breakthrough” illustration(s), but given the growth from pre-2016 to 2016 and within 2016 itself, I think that I have a good chance of achieving that first, seemingly elusive, breakthrough piece soon.

While I will definitely pursue learning, networking, exploring, & creating, I would also certainly like to grow the business side this year.

I am quite appreciative for SCBWI, SVSLearn, and the various individuals & groups I’ve gotten the opportunity to grow from this past year.

As I had the opportunity to say to Will: “It is my hope that I can implement and excel from this guidance, and that I may make you, the SVSLearn team & members, and my wife, family & friends proud & encouraged by such growth.”

May it be so this 2017!

Below are some more specifics and links:

This list is IN NO WAY exhaustive by any means. There are so many other websites, people, organizations/companies, tools, books/articles, media, webinars & conferences, etc. that aren’t listed. I just wanted to capture some of my 2016 below:

Websites Important in my 2016:

While there are countless websites that I’ve visited (often too), these were some of the most important and frequently visited.

In one way or another, these people educated & influenced me, giving me inspiration and aspiration by the great work they do (some preceding 2016 but remaining highly influential still and for quite some time to come I believe).

Lauren Panepinto, Creative Director for Orbit Books and Yen Press and artist, Marc Scheff, both of DrawnAndDrafted.com for the insights they gave in a Schoolism Webinar on Monday 10am ET April 4, 2016, hosted by Bobby Chiu and Masae Seki. It is because of your words that I broke out of my impassioned resistance to getting back into on social media. I think that this will have been one of the most crucial aspects of my 2016 and future, for I have gotten to become aware of, meet & befriend, and learn & be inspired from so many people that I may not have known otherwise. Thank you!

New Friends:

There are so many new people added into my life this year; some I have engaged with and some I merely follow. I have gotten to have great conversations with, advice & instruction from, and be inspired by the following. There are others not mentioned—please don’t be offended. My hope is to create an extended list of the wonderful people brought into my life sometime with commentary and even articles dedicated to each. All of you are dearly appreciated!

Kent Robbins
Kent is actually a long time friend, but now that he’s moved back to Dallas, I get to see him often!

Jeff Haynie
Jeff was actually my illustration mentor back in 1995-1997 before he took art director positions at Dreamworks Interactive, EA, Big Fish Games, etc. So glad to get new insights from him this year with my new journey!

New Tools Used & Other Great “Finds”:

Probably too many tools & other resources to count, but here are some that have been of nearly daily importance in my 2016.

These are some industry related books I read (Including concept, presentation, writing/storytelling, art views, etc.) (Also, I did not include other types of books here nor any industry related articles). The first five are strictly secular books and the following are from a Christian worldview:

Again, while a long post, there was so much more in my 2016 both professionally and personally that simply cannot be captured. Many more people, events, organizations, tools, insights, struggles, successes, etc. It’s been a fun ride. Now on to 2017!